Corzine to face Congress on MF Global

Regulators and prosecutors examining the failure of MF Global will discover tomorrow if Jon Corzine, its former chief executive, plans to answer public questions about the collapse of the brokerage firm.

Mr Corzine is preparing for a Congressional hearing on the firm’s failure, amid new allegations that he repeatedly ignored the warnings of his chief risk officer about the dangers of his gamble on eurozone debt.

The Senate Agriculture Committee, which has the oversight of derivatives legislation among its responsibilities, has subpoenaed Mr Corzine to appear tomorrow, but it is still not clear if he will exercise his rights under the Fifth Amendment not to answer potentially incriminating questions. As well as the bets that sank the firm, the committee is also examining whether MF Global illegally raided customers’ accounts to fund its in-house investments.

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission, MF Global’s regulator, said yesterday it had still not tracked down all of the $1.2 billion that appeared to be missing from customer accounts. The FBI has opened an investigation, too.